Fred

I am Fred and I am 69 years old. I live with my wife Mavis in our first floor flat that we rent from the local housing association. ; We have been married for 45 years, but it only seems like yesterday. ; Mavis and I never had much but we always made the best of what we had. ; I used to work as a painter and decorator, Mavis has always been a housewife, and proud of it. Our son is grown up now and lives abroad; he tries to visit, but it is expensive to come home and he has his own family now. ; ;I have smoked since I was 14 years old and I wish I’d know then how smoking was going to affect my health, but I didn’t. ;

We like where we live, our neighbours are good, popping in to see how we are and the local pensioner’s club is always worth a visit. ; I have had a series of heart attacks over the past two years; the doctors now say I have something called ‘end stage heart failure’. ; My heart will never get better only worse; I am tired and breathless. ; I am stuck in the flat really, not able to get out because of my breathlessness, Mavis has to help me get washed and dressed, but she has her own health problems, she has arthritis. ; I can only eat very slowly due to my breathlessness, then my food gets cold and I stop.

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I have a very swollen stomach, I take ‘water tablets’ at night which are supposed to help – then I spend most of the night going to the toilet. This means I don’t sleep well and am tired during the day. Mavis and I have always been very close, Mavis doesn’t like going out without me, but it is important that she sees her friends. ;

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我是Fred，69岁。和我的太太Marvis一起住在从当地住房协会租来的一层单元楼里。我们结婚45年了，但一切就像是昨天一样。我们并不富有但却过得幸福。我过去是个油漆工，Marvis是个家庭主妇，还很引以为荣。我们的儿子长大了在国外生活。他总想回来看我们，但是路费太贵了而且他也有自己的家庭。我从14岁就开始吸烟，真希望能早点知道吸烟对我身体健康的危害。

我们非常喜欢我们住的地方，我们的邻居都很好，经常会来看看我们，退休者俱乐部也是很值得去的地方。过去两年里我发过几次心脏病，医生说我现在是什么“心衰失代偿期”。我的心脏只会越来越糟糕。我感觉乏力、气短。因为气短我不能外出只能关在房子里。Marvis帮我清洁、穿衣，可她也有自己的毛病----关节炎。因为气短我吃饭只能吃得很慢，饭冷了就不吃了。

因为胃胀，我晚上服用一些药液来缓解胃胀，这样我晚上经常要起来上厕所，所以睡眠不足百天就犯困。Marvis跟我总在一起，不习惯自己一个人外出的，但去见她的朋友对她又是那么重要。